Critical configurations: settlement patterns and ethnic violence

Quantitative research on ethnic conflict has tended to neglect causal mechanisms. By primarily resorting to macro‐level indicators and tests, existing studies fail to give a sufficiently precise account of the actors and their interactions that ultimately lead to conflict. This dissertation shows that a detailed analysis of ethnic settlement patterns can help us get closer to the group processes during conflict. With the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), computational modeling and spatial statistics, the analysis presented here provides new insights into the role of group geography as a determinant for conflict.

@phdthesis{critical-configurations,
title = {Critical configurations: settlement patterns and ethnic violence},
author = {Weidmann, Nils Benedikt},
school = {ETH Zurich},
type = {{PhD} dissertation},
doi = {10.3929/ethz-a-005812204},
url = {http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/view/eth:41806},
year = {2008},
abstract = {Quantitative research on ethnic conflict has tended to neglect causal mechanisms. By primarily resorting to macro-level indicators and tests, existing studies fail to give a sufficiently precise account of the actors and their interactions that ultimately lead to conflict. This dissertation shows that a detailed analysis of ethnic settlement patterns can help us get closer to the group processes during conflict. With the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), computational modeling and spatial statistics, the analysis presented here provides new insights into the role of group geography as a determinant for conflict.}
}